2002 Subaru wrx – no crank

Hey all,

I’m helping a friend out with one of his cars and need a little help.

The car is a 2002 Subaru wrx. The car had some performance issues which hindered making it hard to drive, and the (new at the time) battery kept dying). As a result, the car sat parked in a driveway (and exposed to the elements) for the past 10 months.

After sitting for all that time, we decided to replace the battery and work on getting it driveable again. We put in a new battery (which tested fine on my battery tester and on the parts store tester), and now the car won’t crank.

I put a ratchet on the crankshaft, and the engine turns over just fine. We also tested other equipment on the car, and everything seemed to work except the following: power locks, clock, radio, all interior lights, and none of the keyfobs work to unlock the car (even though the batteries in said keyfobs are good). Also, the gas gauge on the dash has the low fuel light activated (even though there is half a tank of gas in the tank).

Also, when the key is put into the “on” position the fuel pump primes, but it sounds like the pump is running continuously. I can also hear a hissing noise while the pump is running (both when the key is at “on” and “start”). Also, I can’t see (or smell) any active leaks under the car. Additionally when I attempt to crank the engine over, I can here a single click. Since I though the starter might be stuck, I put a prybar on the starter and hammered it while the car’s owner tried to crank from inside the car. It did have an effect, but still no dice (now I can hear two clicks: a single click when the key goes to crank, and another single click when we stop cranking.

Since I last worked on the car, I now have access to some tools I didn’t have last time (like an auto resetting circuit breaker, amp meter, remote starter switch, power probe, etc.

Now for my questions.

Where is the best place to start in diagnosing all of these issues? Also, some general automotive electrical questions I couldn’t find answers to:

01. Can fuses go bad just from sitting?

02. Can light bulbs (like for the dome light) go bad from sitting?

03. Can starters and starter solonoids go bad just from sitting?

03. Could the no crank be caused by the car’s anti theft system being powered down for such a long time?

04. Can keyfobs become unpaired from a car’s anti-theft system when not powered up for a significant period of time (without a good battery hooked up).

05. Could all of these issues stem from a single issue (such as the PCM)?

For what it’s worth, I have all of the Factory Service Manuals, factory wiring diagrams for every circuit on the car (I think). I want to start chasing this down, but I really don’t know where to start.

Thank you!